Have you ever heard the phrase “What got you here won’t get you there?”. In our opinion it was written for newly minted Head Strength Coaches or Performance Directors! Up until this point, you’ve been able to climb the ladder by being the best coach in the room. Produce results with athletes, get promoted, repeat. But the game has changed: as a head coach you’re now judged not just on your ability or results, but on the ability of every coach who works under you. 

That means you need to clone yourself, and the skill set required to do that is markedly different from what helped you to climb the ladder and become the top dog. If you suck at stuff like recruitment and retention of staff, management, systems, culture and conflict resolution, you’ll be out of the door before you can even say “unfair”. It doesn’t even matter how good of a coach you are.

To be a successful director you’ll need to look further afield than the typical research journals, courses and certifications to industry, sales and marketing, military, organisational psychology and more. If that sounds daunting, that’s because it is! When the task in front of you is so different from anything you’ve faced before it can be extremely difficult to know where to look, who to listen to, and what problem to focus on first. 

That’s why we’ve put together this 10 part blueprint for directors just like you. We spoke to head coaches working in the trenches and winning championships to share their experiences. What were the things they wished they knew when they were starting out? What mistakes should they have avoided? Now you can follow the path of those who have gone before you to save yourself a lot of time, heartache and missed opportunities.